When choosing an e-mail address, many people use personal nicknames or some part of their real names. As common as this process is, certain nicknames can lead to cases of mistaken identity. This is especially true when you’re using your email address to contact prospective employers. There have been cases when e-mail address names have had names similar to those of adult entertainers or other sexually suggestive things. One young lady whose last name was Fox created an e-mail address with her last name before her first name so it read [email protected]. She noticed that she wasn’t getting any responses back from prospective employers and looking back she believes it was due to her e-mail address. At the time she was applying for jobs with that e-mail address, it didn’t cross her mind that it could possibly sound like porno spam. It wasn’t until a relative of hers received a porno spam e-mail with a similar address to Melissa’s that she decided to change her email.
Name mix-ups and mistaken identities aren’t anything new. However, with the growing use of the internet it’s easier for people to find those who share the same name. Some people Google search their own names and find others, including adult entertainers who share the same or similar name. While you have no control over who you share your name with, it’s something to think about when creating an e-mail address, more specifically an e-mail address that will be used for business purposes.
A study by the U.S. government done in 2006 found that 1 percent of websites indexed by Google and Microsoft–which is more than 250 million sites–contain sexually explicit material. With such a huge volume of sexually explicit material on the internet, it’s not unusual for personal web searches of names, e-mail addresses, and web sites to turn up X-rated material or otherwise suggestive material. My nephew recently did an image search of the foods “rice” and “calzones” and both turned up sexually explicit images. Seemingly harmless or innocent words and names can turn up unexpected results.
Some personal expert and resume consultants recommend buying and registering a domain name in order to protect your name online. If the particular domain name is already taken it’s recommended that you start a basic blog since blogging attracts more search engine attention. Blogs will appear higher up in the search engine than MySpace pages which might not be suitable for all employers.
While you would think most people are internet savvy enough these days not to confuse everyone with adult entertainers, certain names can create identity confusion for someone involved in hiring. Since people responsible for hiring you most likely don’t know you personally, an internet search of your name can turn up all sorts of explicit material which will cause them to not even give your resume a second glance. Pop-up ads can come up as quickly as you click on a website and it these ads can be full of porn or other sexually explicit material all from a name search. When doing an internet search you can never be 100 percent certain that you’re getting the right person and since that’s the case, be sure to take the recommended precautions. This isn’t guaranteed to completely eliminate all identity confusion problems but it can help.
